Ben Fox Rubin

Google agrees to open Android to competing apps in Russia

Google and Russia’s anti-monopoly watchdog agreed to settle a two-year-long disagreement over Google’s Android software. According to the settlement, which Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service announced Monday, Google will stop demanding phone makers give exclusivity and priority to its Google apps on Android-based devices in Russia. The company also can’t restrict competing search engines and applications …

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Amazon chucking Diapers.com this week

Quidsi’s six retail sites, including Diapers.com and Soap.com, will officially shut down Wednesday. All the sites will transition to Amazon.com that day and are currently using “we’re moving” banners on the top of each site to alert customers. Amazon, Quidsi’s parent company, bought the company for $545 million in 2011 but said last month it would shut down the business …

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iPhone 8’s new fingerprint sensor may be on the fritz

Now playing: Watch this: iPhone 8 may have hit a roadblock with its Touch ID 1:11 Red flags keep popping up over Apple’s new fingerprint sensor for its next iPhone. Pacific Crest Securities analysts said in a note to investors Sunday that Apple’s component suppliers were struggling with a new fingerprint sensor. That sensor is expected to go under the …

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Amazon adds Parent Dashboard to track your kid’s web diet

My 4-year-old daughter often nabs my wife’s iPhone and disappears for hours into the YouTube Kids app. We intermittently check on what she’s watching, but it’s hard to keep track of every video. Since lots of parents deal with this issue, Amazon decided to roll out a new way to check on your kid’s digital diet. It’s a service for …

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Online shoppers are liking those speedy checkout options

Apple Pay so far hasn’t inspired people to burn their wallets, but there’s one type of newer digital payment that’s gaining traction. Visa on Thursday said Visa Checkout now has over 20 million enrolled customers. That’s double the 10 million of around the same time last year, but still a fraction of Visa’s 2.5 billion total issued cards. With the …

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Amazon catches NFL games for a cool $50 million (The 3:59, Ep. 205)

Get ready for some Amazon Prime live-streaming football. The online retailer won a bidding war among Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube to snag the global streaming rights for 10 Thursday night National Football League games for $50 million. That price is five times more than Twitter paid last season. We debate why Amazon spent so much and what the company …

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Amazon gets closer to shutting down Diapers.com, Soap.com

Amazon took an additional step to unwind its Quidsi business, which operates Diapers.com and Soap.com. As of Tuesday morning, Quidsi.com now redirects to Amazon.com. The Quidsi site as recently as last week was the division’s main portal, providing visitors with the company’s history, job openings listings and links to its six specialty retail websites: Diapers.com, Soap.com, BeautyBar.com, Wag.com, Yoyo.com and …

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With Bixby, Samsung tries to talk its way into contention

OK Google, meet Bixby. Alexa, meet Bixby. Hey Siri — never mind, you all get the point. There’s another voice assistant on the block, this time from Samsung and coming exclusively to its new Galaxy S8 phone later this month. It does a lot of the same stuff those other digital helpers already do, only it does them worse while …

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Synaptics introduces a better fingerprint sensor

A fingerprint sensor built into a smartphone display may be coming later this year. Synaptics, which provides fingerprint sensor technology to many Android phone makers including Samsung, said this week it came out with a new family of sensors, which can be placed under glass, ceramic and polymer. Additionally, these sensors can go on the back, front or side of …

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Broadband providers reaffirm privacy policies amid FCC rules flap

Comcast, AT&T and Verizon moved to reassure their customers Friday that they have not and will not collect and sell their personal data. All three companies made such statements a few days after the House of Representatives passed a resolution that would prevent tougher Federal Communications Commission rules on data collection from taking effect. The Senate passed the resolution earlier …

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